The Phone Call
	Dear Janice, It was October, my very favorite month and I was about ten years old. I was sitting on the front steps of our house on Ellicott Street carving a Jack-o-lantern. It was late afternoon and you could smell that first hint of autumn in the air. Edison Elementary School, the school where we all went was going to have their Halloween carnival in a couple of days and that was probably the most looked forward to day of the year. That, and actual Halloween night. Back then all of us kids would go for miles out of our neighborhood with washtubs and pillowcases and croker sacks to carry our huge hoards of candy home in. We'd stay out for hours after dark by ourselves and no one ever worried about the children back then because nothing ever happened. It's just the way things were. The only thing bad that ever happened were little Halloween pranks to houses that didn't give out candy. Anyway, I was feeling a little melancholy because I had had a tiff of some sort with my best friend. Larry and I went everywhere together and I knew that going to the carnival without the whole gang being together wouldn't be much fun. I also knew that this argument wouldn't last more than a couple of days. They never did. At the carnival they had a booth with a big sign out in front that read "SEE THE SWIMMING MATCHES". Well, that was right up my brother, Andy's alley. He excelled in every sport there was and at twelve seeing the swimming matches was worth every penny of his dime. He couldn't wait! Our friend, Warren Baker who was with us said his mother was in charge of one of the booths and there she was at the counter taking the dimes that allowed you to go behind the curtain to see the swimming matches. It's funny how it never occurred to any of us that there could hardly be swimming matches in the little ten ft. square space behind that curtain. We couldn't even hear splashing. Andy gave his ten cents to Mrs. Baker and went behind the curtain while the rest of us, wanting to make our money stretch, waited outside. When he came out you could tell by the look on his face that he was not happy. He took one look at Warren Baker and started chasing him. He caught him close to the other side of the carnival and got his ten cents back. What had been behind the curtain was a washtub full of water with a bunch of wooden kitchen matches floating around in it. It turned out that by the carnival night Larry and I were friends again. You can't stay upset with your best friend. He and Andy and I even had our own language that we made up that no one else could understand. Friends would test us by whispering something to one of us and be blown away when we interpreted it to one of our counterparts. To this day, when I'm working on a project and I'm thinking really hard I'll catch myself thinking in that secret language. As long as I know what I'm saying I guess it's okay. That day when I was sitting on the steps carving the Jack-o-lantern the phone rang inside. It was one of those big, loud, black telephones and I could hear it from outside. Still being in a snit, I yelled inside to my mother "If that's for me tell them I'm not here." Well, I knew how my mother felt about lying and I peeked in through the front window and she was standing there with the phone receiver up to her ear with one hand and the other hand covering her eyes. She was saying " I don't see him. He was here earlier but I don't see him now." She never knew I saw her do that and I never asked her to lie for me again. Lynn